Swindle

After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palomino cons sixth-grader Griffin Bing out of a valuable baseball card, Griffin puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store and steal the card back. Book #1After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palomino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store and steal the card back, planning to use the money to finance his father's failing invention, the Smart Pick fruit picker.

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Grown-ups have no right to cheat kids just because they are older than them.
That is the message in Griffin Bing’s mind as he plans to steal back a baseball card recovered from the demolition zone, then sold to the granddaddy of all conmen, swindlers, and frauds everywhere. Cheated out of a million-dollar card, Griffin rounds up his friends for a good old-fashioned heist that will leave S. Wendell ripping up his hair. And with his family struggling to keep their house and Griffin’s dad trying to make a mark in the world with his incredible invention, he is desperate for the money. Luckily for Griffin, the only obstacles are huge fences with lots of keep out signs, military level security systems and one very mean dog. For all those who do not mind falling off their bed because they didn’t bother looking up from the book, this is a perfect read.
- @KingofTales30 of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library

Swindle is an interesting read for middle/elementary school-aged readers. Griffin Bing and his sidekick Ben plan a sleepover in a haunted house with their grade to stand up to the adults and show them that “kids’ opinions matter”. But when nobody else shows up, they choose to stay the night anyways. Griffin goes exploring, and he finds a Babe Ruth baseball card. However, when he goes to the town pawn shop to see how much he can get for it, he gets fooled thinking it isn’t valuable! He absolutely needs that card back, and decides he’d do anything for it. How does he get it back? It is most certainly an adventure. No mature content, a couple funny lines and a thirty pound turkey. There were a plethora of different kinds of characters, showing diverse skills and personalities, plus Griffin is easy to relate to. A nice easy read for whenever. I’d recommend it.
- @tacoboutbooks of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library

I read this book as a kid and I just loved it, it was super unique and creative and so cute. It was also really clever, which is always fun for a kid to read. I highkey would recommend it because it’s just super cute and also funny. A classic tbh. Pls go read it if you’re a kid or if you missed out. I loved this book very much.
- @SecretBlossom of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library

A boy named Griffin Bing THE MAN WITH THE PLAN and his friend went to a house that would be destroy the next day and finds a baseball card in a desk of Babe Ruth and he sells it to a man that owns a thrift store for 120 bucks
when the man that owns the thrif store is going to auduction it off for the top bidder which could be 5 million dollars so griffin and his friend make a team and try to get the card while there is a train dog that protects the card can he do it will he get caught find out in this mystery story very good
i'm 12 years old

We REALLY enjoyed reading this as a family. I read it out loud to my son and husband, and they loved it ... lots of laughter! Two big thumbs up. Now we're reading the rest of the series, and it is proving to be a great one.
My son's contribution to this review: "MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Summary

When two best friends, Griffin Bing and Ben Slovak, spend the night in an old abandoned house that is set to be demolished the next day, Griffin explores part of the house while Ben sleeps. While exploring the house, Griffin finds an old desk, and begins to look through it's contents and finds an old Babe Ruth baseball card. The next day Ben and Griffin rush to a dealer's shop, and talk to the owner, S. Wendell Palomino, and he says it's a copy, not worth much. The boys, bummed, sell it to him for $120 and walk out. They later realize that they were swindled out of the card! It's true value was a million dollars, and the boys want it back. They form a team of 6.
Melissa Dukakis- Computer expert.
Savannah Drysdale- Animal expert.
Pitch Benson- Climber.
Logan Kellerman- Actor.
Ben Slovak- Tight spaces specialist.
Griffin Bing- Planner.
They set to work planning on stealing the card, only to realize it was transferred from the shop to Swindle's house, and they form an elaborate plan to break in and steal the card back. Logan is to distract the old neighbor across the street who is always on the look out for suspicious behavior.
Savannah is to keep the big Doberman, known as Luthor, under control.
Pitch is to get the team in and out through the skylight in the upstairs bathroom.
Melissa is to disarm the security system and get the whole team in without triggering anything.
Griffin is still planner, and leader of the team. If something goes south, he'll fix it.
Ben is there as a lookout.
The day before the break-in, the school bully, Darren Vader, confronts them and threatens to rat them out unless he can get in on the action. The team has no choice but to let him come, or else risk the whole plan being compromised.

When they break into the house, they search and find the card, but Luthor starts to get really worried, and as they go downstairs, they realize it's because of a massive other dog, whose bigger, badder, and meaner than Luthor. Suddenly the dog starts barking, and alerts the old neighbor, and he calls the cops. The team scrambles to get out, but the card is blown into the wind, and gets lodged really high in a tree. Griffin, luckily, had brought his father's invention and uses it to get the card before Darren could get it and run off with it.
Later the whole break-in plot is discovered and the kids are under investigation. Griffin and the rest of the team are let off with a warning, but they aren't able to keep the card because there was a relative of the house who was given it. She then sells it and gives all the money to her grandson, Darren Vader. But his parents decide to put all the money towards collage funds.

Best friends Griffin Bing and Ben Slovak find an old Babe Ruth card in an abandoned house and sell it to Mr. S. Wendell Palimino, a collector, for a hundred dollars. But when they found out that they were swindled from the card's actual over a million dollar value, they have to make a perfect plan and a perfect team to steal the card back.

A kid finds a baseball card in a old house and someone tricks him and almost sells it but him and some of his friends out the the card at was at the guys house.So the busted into that guys house and got the card.

Gordan and Ben find a very rare Babe Ruth Baseball card in the Rockford house. Griffen then sells it to Mr.Palimino for 100 dollars. He then finds out that he was conned and that the card could be sold for a million dollars! Griffen and his friends plan a big heist to get his card back.

Griffen and Ben fing a really rare babe ruth card and sell to mr.palamino. Griffen later finds out that the card is acually worth a million dollars. griffen needs that money for his family. Griffen and his friends do a theft to swindle's house to get the card back.

Quotes

" 'It's a go, then,' Griffin announced. 'The auction is on October seventeenth. That gives us five days to make our move. I don't have to tell you that total secrecy is a must. you can't talk to ANYBODY about this, no matter how good you think they are at keeping secrets. No best friends, no favorite grandmothers, no personal life coaches, not even your pen pal who lives in Hong Kong. NO ONE ELSE cam fond out about this!' "

" 'Before we go any further' Girffin said solemnly, 'I need your word that what's said in this room stays in this room. In or out, you can't tell anybody about this. Ever. This is no kid's game. There's serious stuff on the line - serious money, but also serious trouble if anything goes wrong. If you don't think you can handle it, there's the door' "